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| Headquarters field-telegraph party at Petersburg, Virginia, June 22, 1864 A battery-wagon in ‘action’; the operator has opened his office and is working his instrument. Important despatches were sent in cipher which only a chosen few operators could read. The latter were frequently under fire but calmly sat at their instruments, with the shells flying thick about them, and performed their duty with a faithfulness that won them an enviable reputation. At the Petersburg mine fiasco, in the vicinity of where this photograph was taken, an operator sat close at hand with an instrument and kept General Meade informed of the progress of affairs. The triumph of the field telegraph exceeded the most sanguine expectations. From the opening of Grant's campaign in the Wilderness to the close of the war, an aggregate of over two hundred miles of wire was put up and taken down from day to day; yet its efficiency as a constant means of communication between the several commands was not interfered with. The Army of the Potomac was the first great military body to demonstrate the advantages of the field telegraph for conducting military operations. The later campaigns of all civilized nations benefited much by these experiments. The field telegraph was in constant use during the Russian-Japanese War. Wireless stations are now an integral part of the United States army organization. |
